Sunday, January 22, 2006

'Really bad people' try to smuggle in across the Southern border

Court documents in a Brownsville, Texas drug-smuggling case cite a wiretapped telephone conversation by one of the smugglers who said that "Osama's people" are ready to be transported across the Mexican border into the U.S...

"During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, [the smuggling suspect] described the men as 'Iraqis,' ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.

"[The suspect] mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were 'dangerous' and 'really bad people.' They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them 'afraid.'"

Wiretaps managed to detect this coyote's concerns about his cargo. But it is unclear as to whether or not the illegals were identified or apprehended. Even if they were in this specific incident, that the smuggler used the word 'Osama' in a phone conversation is an anomaly. How many of these so-called OTMs are coming across undetected? Unbelievably, it is really anyone's guess. Even more shocking is the insouciance of ICE's dealing with them:

Detention and Removal Operations does not have enough detention beds to accommodate every OTM that is apprehended.

As a result of this, the majority of OTMs apprehended by the USBP are released into the interior of the United States with notices to appear before an immigration judge.

Most of these released OTMs fail to show up for their hearings and are not ultimately removed.

Hard to believe. I fear the morning we wake up to a news alert showing the aftermath of simultaneous terrorist attacks on a number of major US cities.

Meanwhile, more evidence that Mexico is a hostile parasite rather than a solid ally surfaces:

The Mexican military has little regard for the border as troops have entered the United States 216 times over nine years, according to a Department of Homeland Security document and a map of incursions.

Notice these invasions are not being made merely by mercenaries hired to aid in smuggling--this is the actual Mexican military breaching the border and engaging our BP agents:

One border agent speaking on condition of anonymity told the Bulletin: "We've had armed showdowns with the Mexican army. ... These aren't just ex-military guys. These are Mexican army officials assisting drug smugglers.''

"That number [of 216] is 20 times larger than even the Minuteman project organizers are aware of,'' said Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project, a civilian group concerned with border security. "But I'm not surprised at that number. There are significant drug and human cargo cartels involving Mexican military threatening Americans at the border. But our Congress has turned a blind eye to it because what the American people don't know won't bother them – that's how our representatives think.''

Notice the outcry when the Minutemen peacefully assembled along the US-Mexico border to call attention to lax border enforcement compared to the muted media response to hostile (keep in mind, they've fired on BP agents) incursions by armed forces from another country onto US territory. But Americans are starting to pay attention. They overwhelmingly support the construction of a physical barrier to halt the flow of illegals.

We need a wall. In the meantime, we need the National Guard to backup the Border Patrol and respond to any hostile fire by lighting the desert up.